Confidence is High in Dairy Sector

A resounding number of dairy farmers are confident
about their future post-Brexit, despite questions over future trade deals
and farm payments.

That’s the result of a survey with British farmers – milking
more than 16,000 cows between them – who were polled at Dairy
Day, Telford, by leading farming app business Herdwatch.

James Greevy, head of business
and product development at Herdwatch

“The level of confidence – with 88% saying they are confident
- is a little surprising, especially considering the amount of uncertainty
that there is concerning Brexit,” says James Greevy, head of business
and product development. “But it’s great to see how many farmers
(52%) are looking at boosting cow numbers moving forward.”

The two biggest concerns for the future were cited as milk
price –
which has been extremely volatile over the past two years – and
labour shortages, with immigration a key Government discussion point.

Farmers said they were also worried about growing consumer perceptions,
with milk being seen as an unhealthy drink, and the increasing sales
of non-dairy ‘milks’, along with parallel growth in the vegan food
market and aggressive advertising campaigns.

The most popular social media platform was given as Facebook, with
farmers also quoting Twitter and Instagram.

Supporting the fact that some farmers are reluctant to take on
new technology, more than half those quizzed said they were NOT
currently using their smart phones to record farm information.

“This has surprised us, as Herdwatch allows you to input all farm
recording data as you walk around the farm – literally data
management at your fingertips – and it can save so much time
and remove the potential for errors,” says James.

“Plenty of those surveyed said smart phones were also used by
all their farm staff, so Herdwatch, as an app that can easily be
shared on farm, would seem to be a perfect recording tool. Add
to this the link to BCMS, and the fact that we are continually
updating the software’s ability, and it would seem there is a great
opportunity for dairy farmers to make use of our current free trial
offer.”